2008-06-14 Update: I’ve released my portfolio of photography as a public resource. See my free stock gallery. This ruins my chances of marketing to commercial publishers, but I don’t care.
2008-05-24 Update: I’ve pushed further by launching the thripp.com blogging network. It’s worth it to contribute a great service to the online community, even if it costs me extra to host. I’m hoping to cover that with advertising, but it often falls short.
When I started my website on 2007-12-23, I wanted it to be a place not only to exhibit my photography, but also to help the photography and online community as a whole.
Today, I’ve realized that dream. I’ve published many resources for my fellow photographers, grounded in my years of expertise. While my art gallery is extensive, it is not just pretty pictures; every photograph is a teaching photograph, including details on the execution and post-processing, technical notation, and a ground-breaking archive of source images, so you can see exactly what I did to produce what you see. Many other digital photographers add notes on their editing, but few show you so precisely; it is a resource which I will continue to offer.
While photography is my focus, I dedicate twenty percent of my entries to other subjects that need my input. I release my academic essays as a public resource, which I dedicate hours of work to researching, annotating, and perfecting. My ramblings on photography and school provide fleeting insights, while my webmastering journals give valuable, often-looked tips to other aspiring online-publishers.
I could have done this all for free by continuing with my deviantART account, or putting everything on a LiveJournal blog. But no—I chose to free myself from the shackles of a third party, even though it is costly and less reliable (at least initially). This is not a website that I will hold for five or ten months till it loses my interest; richardxthripp.thripp.com is my home on the Internet for the next fifty or one-hundred years. You can’t do that when you have, say, wordpress.com forever tied to your website’s name, along with their restrictions.
But, I have to pay to keep myself online. I’ve already spent thousands of dollars and hours on my work; I consider this not a loss, but an investment; anything for my art. I make little money in my craft, but am glad to pay for commercial hosting out-of-pocket. Sadly, money can be quite fleeting for a college student, and so every contribution helps. I’m hosted cheaply through July of 2008 ($10 through this offer), but after that Netfirms charges $10 a month. I’ve had no shortage of troubles with them, so I plan to switch to Lunarpages in July, which is a better host and will have an ongoing cost of $7 per month.
I make this up through four ways:
• Pay-per-click advertising through Google AdSense.
• Affiliate links from Amazon.com. If you buy anything through any links to Amazon.com in my photography articles or recommended products, I get a 4% commission.
• Donations from my readers.
So far, as of 2008-07-01, I’ve worked 810 hours on establishing this site, including the thripp.com network, technical details, and creating and adding photos and articles. I’ve paid $15.55, the $5.55 being to renew the domain name, which I got back in 2007-03. I have earned $41.39.
Donations are through PayPal. You can give by credit card or with your PayPal account; whatever amount you feel is appropriate. They take thirty cents plus 2.9% off the top, but all the rest goes to pay my hosting costs.
Alternately, you can send a check or money order to:
RICHARD THRIPP
1829 NELSON AVE
ORMOND BEACH FL 32174-7227
Thank you. 
By the way, the photo in the donation button is The Garden in Yellow.
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